Category Archives: Travis

Summer flew by and today we started the new school year. Travis and I were both excited, but nervous to start this school year. We survived!!! We both learned a lot over the summer about teaching and really want to implement it into our classrooms. That meant rethinking our first days and most of the days afterward. I am working on making my classroom more of an OUR classroom and giving my students more control over their learning and classroom. Travis is working on making his classroom inquiry based and having his teaching led by students questions. We both know that this year will be a starter year for what we eventually want our teaching to look like, but we are excited to be on the right track! So here’s to the 2014-2015 school year and to our learning and growing and our students’ learning and growing!

Travis and I really enjoy cooking together, mostly because I don’t like to be in the kitchen by myself and Travis likes to cook. It’s a win-win! We also love watching cooking shows so lately I have been thinking about what roles we would have if we ran a restaurant together. Here’s what it turned into to:

Trav’s signature is his hair. If I can’t find him, I look for his hair and it was the first thing that attracted me to him. Multiple women have commented on his hair and most of them total strangers. It stands out and I will never let him cut it! On Friday, our school had Olympics day, which is like a field day for the whole school. Travis helps sponsor the sophomore class and they were selling lunch and breakfast as a fundraiser. Cotton candy was one of the things being sold and Travis became the cotton candy man for the whole afternoon.

Cotton Candy Man

Apparently, he made some fun color combinations.

What does that have to do with his hair? By the end of the day, his hair looked like cotton candy. It was full of strands of cotton candy and it kind of looked like he had stuck his hair into the machine. Here’s proof:

Well, really only Travis is the champion but it went along well with another blog post I wrote so I went with it. Travis plays in a competitive softball league that is run by the American Embassy here in Dakar. The league always ends with a tournament called W.A.I.S.T. Last year, Trav’s team, the Cavemen (old man power is their motto) won the whole thing. Could they do it again? By the title you could probably guess (or infer like I teach my 3rd graders) what happened. They had to go through their rivals, the Embassy team. Dun…dun…dun. All season long the Embassy team beat us. I think we beat them maybe once…so the odds were in their favor. Not so much. Cavemen mercy ruled them, winning 16-2. Boo-yah. That pretty much set us up to make it to the championship, with a little help from one team quitting the whole thing in dramatic fashion. And make it to the championship they did where they hit well, fielded well, and defeated the Embassy once again to carry on the winning tradition.

Travis loves teaching. He is passionate about helping his students learn to love history and to create a classroom that is alive and vibrant. I love him for that! To study the popular culture in the 1920s, he “opened”a speakeasy in his classroom. The students had to give him a membership card in order to get in (it’s very exclusive). He had different activities for the students to do around the class to learn about the 1920s. He had short movie clips, articles, book excerpts, and other things for the students to look at while they enjoyed their “beverages” of Coke and Sprite. Overall it was a success (next year he is going to have them all dress up!) Here is a peek:

In 5 days the first semester will be over and Christmas vacation will start. At the end of the semester, I always look back and think about what has happened. So here are ten words to describe our semester:

1. Challenging– Travis and I are still relatively new teachers and continuing to work on becoming better. Teaching is always a challenging occupation, especially if you want to do it well.

2. Unexpected– We had an unexpected trip to Spain. I had an unexpected ankle problem. An unexpected pet bird. You get the picture…

3. Sports– Travis and I both coached. Travis played handball, softball, and spike ball. We also both played in a volleyball league.

4. Noisy– There is a building being built right behind ours and there is a lot of banging.

5. Communication– Travis and I continued to try and stay connected to our families and friends, even though we are far away.

6.Yummy– Cooking continues to be a fun and important part of our relationship.

7. Meetings– We are working on our accreditation renewal that is coming up so there have been quite a few meetings.